• Customers complained to Trading Standards that films were 'poor quality'
• Officers raided the factory and found four defendants working there
• Former sex shop owner Fred Thompson, 69, was the ringleader of operation
• Shaun Langley, Nigel Maw, his son David Maw, also involved, court heard

By Amanda Williams

Published: spin rewriter 12:39, 8 August 2013 | Updated: 13:20, article spinning 8 August 2013

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Ringleader: Fred Thompson, pictured arriving at Hull Crown Court, spin rewriter 12.0 is facing jail for his role in the counterfeit porn DVD factory

Four men who ran a huge counterfeit porn DVD factory face jail after customers complained to Trading Standards that the films were too short.

Clients of Fantasy Dome, based in Hull, East Yorkshire, also wrote letters bemoaning that fact that the illicit sex videos were of poor quality, a court heard.

Former sex shop owner Fred Thompson, 69, was the ringleader of the operation, which saw the gang copying and distributing tens of thousands of illegal sex DVDs across the world.

The scam was run by Thompson, of west Hull, in partnership with Shaun Langley.

Nigel Maw, 52, of Newport, and his son David Maw, 31, of west Hull, had entered into an agreement to buy the mail order business from Thompson and spin rewriter 12.0 were working there.

All of them had a financial interest in the business at the time.

Hull Crown Court heard the defendants copied fake DVDs at a factory in St Georges Road, west Hull, best spinner and had industrial machines to print fake packaging for the copies.

They then sold illicit and unauthorised copies by mail order and over the internet.

Trading Standards officers raided the factory and found all four defendants working there.

They were trading under the best spinner names of Fantasy Dome and article rewriter Fantasy Dome Online.

Officers found two large blue storage containers full of illegal DVDs.

Prosecutor Charlene Sumnall said: 'This is not a case about the morality of porn or spin rewriter adult entertainment. Whether you like it or not, there is a market for legitimate porn and thousands of customers use it everyday.

'Those customers, like any others, deserve protection from being defrauded. Just like any other release, it has to go before the film board to see if it is lawful and OK to be sold.

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'All four defendants played individual and key roles in this agreement to produce, spin rewriter 12.0 distribute, defraud and encourage the sale of adult content material.

'All the material found, spin rewriter 12.0 save for a few original discs, have been found to be illicit.

'A large DVD spin rewriter was able to produce four copies of a DVD at the same time.

'Unsuspecting members of the best spinner public were in no position to complain to Trading Standards that they were getting shoddy discs because of the nature of the product.'

Officers found letters from customers complaining the films were not as long as they were supposed to be and were of poor quality.

Criminal offence: Hull Crown Court heard the defendants copied fake DVDs at a factory in St Georges Road, article spinning west Hull, and had industrial machines to print fake packaging for them

A jury at Hull Crown Court found all four men unanimously guilty of conspiracy to make, distribute and defraud customers by producing illegal porn DVDs following a three-week trial.

Judge Mark Bury told them: 'You have all been convicted and I will adjourn sentence. You can all have bail in the meantime.

'These are serious offences for which a sentence of imprisonment may well be passed and this sentence will be immediate.'

In the same raid, officers also uncovered the city's first counterfeiting currency scam, which saw more than £22,000 of fake notes produced.

The former Adultnation sex shop, in Hull's Beverley Road, article rewriter had been transformed into a counterfeiting den producing £10, £20 and 50 euro notes.

Officers discovered notes in various stages of production and found a large stash of sheets of newly printed notes hidden under a carpet.

Thompson was previously found guilty of possessing £2,380 in counterfeit notes with intent to spend them and was given a six-month prison sentence.

Langley, of north Hull, pleaded guilty to producing the notes at the shop, claiming he was working under orders from his boss and was previously jailed for two years.

Most of the fake money was spent in the Beverley area.

The court heard Thompson said: article spinning 'I like to be Jack The Lad in Hessle Road. I am not ashamed of my offending. I have never hurt anybody.'

Sentencing is due next month.